Sunday, October 12, 2008

WHAT CAN YOU LEARN FROM FOOTBALL?


Today's blog was originally going to wrap up the seafood topic; but I'm at my in-laws' house and I don't have my notes, so we're going to take off on a tangent. After all, it's Sunday, and that means it's a day full of wonderful NFL games.
Before you immediately bail on this blog, let me just say:
1. You don't have to be a football fan to learn something useful today.
2. I really like watching football, and basketball for that matter, but I'm by no means a fanatic fan and I'm not going to bore you with a long tribute to sports.
3. Even if you hate NFL football, you can learn something relevant to your health by watching a football game. Or at least by reading today's blog.
FOOTBALL INJURIES: A WONDER OF NATURE
If you watch a football game, it's obvious that people get hurt quite a bit. But given the size of the players, the speed at which they travel, and the body-to-body impact that occurs, it's not how often players DO get injured that's surprising. I think, and my practice partners agree, that what's surprising is how often players DO NOT get injured in these high-impact, intense games. Let's look into 3 types of injuries that don't occur as often as they should, and why.
HEAD INJURIES
Actually, head injuries occur constantly in football. You hear about them sometimes, but the true number of head injuries is hard to estimate, because players are sent back into the game even with relatively major concussions. That's part of football. I'm not even sure a concussion is considered an injury in football. In any case, why aren't there more serious head injuries?
Answer: HELMETS. Helmet technology has improved drastically over the years, and will continue to do so. Any doctor who treats athletes will see people who have sustained severe concussions, even with helmets on. But the feared head injuries (skull fractures, intracranial bleeds, ruptured blood vessels in the brain) are much more common in athletes that are not wearing helmets. Most of you probably don't play full-contact football. But if you bike, ski, snowboard, skateboard, or rollerblade, please do yourself a favor: Wear a helmet. It's the easiest way to avoid the most dreaded type of sports-related injury.
BY THE WAY, THANK YOU: To motorcycle riders who don't wear helmets. They are are largest contributor of brain-dead bodies (namely, themselves); and brain-dead bodies are our largest source of organs for transplant. I fully support motorcycle riders not wearing helmets, as long as their organ-donation cards are filled out.

KNEE INJURIES
The serious knee injuries that are common in football are also common in recreational weekend sports that we all do from time to time. This injuries include tears of the ACL or PCL ligaments, meniscal tears, fractures, and tears of the ligaments on the sides of the knees, known as the collateral ligaments. When I watch NFL football, I'm amazed that ligament and meniscus tears don't occur in huge numbers. How is it that a lineman can dive helmet-first into your favorite quarterback's knee, and not cause a tear?
Answer: KNEE STABILITY. You can stabilize your knee with a brace (especially the expensive, hinged kind), your you can build your knee stability internally. Knee stability is largely a function of the pure strength of the muscles around the knee, especially the muscles of the thigh. Keeping your quadriceps and hamstring muscles strong means that the ligaments and cartilage in the knee joint have extra support, and can take more abuse. Want some specific exercises? Try the following next time you're at a gym:
1. Quad extensions (on a weight machine)
2. Hamstring curls (on the machine where you lie on your stomach and pull your feet up toward your butt)
3. Seated leg presses
4. Standing hamstring curls (on the cable machine)
If you need more exercises or info on how to build strong thighs, ask one of those incredibly fit, handsome trainers most gyms have walking around these days.

BACK INJURIES
Surprisingly, football players get back injuries less commonly than the average Joe who shovels snow, lifts boxes, helps a friend move, or does any of the other activities of life that stress the low back. If you've ever had a "slipped disk" or "low back strain," you know it can be fairly disabling, and you also know that it may come back to visit- frequently. Some studies suggest that back pain absorbs more time and money than any other condition in the American health care system. With all the impact to the spine, pile-ups, hyperextensions, falls, and collisions, why don't football players constantly injure their backs?
Answer: CORE STRENGTH.
You've probably heard about building or strengthening your "core" these days, even if you don't do Pilates, yoga, martial arts, or boxing. Strengthening your "core" simply means keeping your abdominal and low-back muscles strong. The reason to do this is essentially the same reason you want to stabilize your knees: your core muscles add layers of stability and strength to your otherwise vulnerable spine, spinal nerves, disks, and other ligaments in the back. It's never too late to build up core strength. In fact, it's the foundation of treating back pain and even the most severe back injuries. Core strength also protects the spine from injuries, by supporting the vulnerable structures and absorbing forces on the spine.
Football players spend a ton of time working on their abdominal and low-back muscles- a fact that is evident if you've ever seen a picture of a running back with his shirt off. Even those 350-pound offensive lineman have a dense wall of abdominal musculature underneath all that spare tire. That's a big part of why the backs of football players can take a ton of abuse without causing disabling pain.
So how do you strengthen your core? Most gyms have machines to help you do this, and the exercises in Pilates, yoga, and martial arts also have numerous moves designed to keep the core strong. Crunches and sit-ups are the most well-known abdominal exercises, and these work great. I recommend also doing low-back exercises, such as forward bends and back extensions (you need a piece of equipment called a "Roman chair" to do these right, but most gyms have these).
Obviously there are far more parts of the body to injure, and many more techniques to avoid injury, than we've covered here. But this is enough to help you get started, and maybe enough to help you appreciate the resilience of NFL players.